Music Business/Management Department & Professional Education DivisionEnvisioning 21st Century Music Business Models: Ethics and the New Music Industry

Thursday / April 17, 2014 / 7:00 p.m.

David Friend Recital Hall

921 Boylston Street

Boston

MA

02115

This annual event features guests from the music industry addressing the role of ethics in the business and how to rebuild it to support sustainable careers for artists and music business professionals —without selling their soul. Topics will include: payola, contracts between artists and labels, rates paid by streaming services to artists, copyright, management/artist relationships, branding and sponsorships, and sexism/ageism in the industry.

The panel will include:

Marcie Allen

President of New York City-based music sponsorship and activation agency MAC Presents, Marcie Allen has 19 years in the music industry negotiating high-profile sponsorships between the world’s leading brands and artists. Allen has executed partnerships between brands and artists including Delta/Michael Buble, Bud Light/Foo Fighters, Verizon/John Legend, Samsung/Keith Urban, CITI/Rolling Stones and Nokia Music/Green Day. She is an eight-time nominee and three-time winner of Billboard Magazine's Concert Marketing and Promotion Award. In April 2013, the White House honored Allen as one of its Hurricane Sandy "Champions of Change." Allen directed a documentary short, Beach 119, about her efforts in the Rockaways, New York, after the storm. Prior to starting MAC, Allen owned and operated MAD Booking & Events, which booked and produced music festivals across the country including On the Bricks in Atlanta.

Melissa Ferrick

Eight-time Boston Music Award winner, now signed with MPress Records, Ferrick started her own label, Right On Records, releasing 12 albums between 2000 and 2010. Her music has been placed in independent films and television, and she owns all of her publishing. Ferrick tours regularly performing upwards of 100 shows a year. She has shared the stage with Morrissey, Marc Cohn, Paul Westerberg, Dwight Yoakam, John Hiatt, Weezer, Tegan and Sara, G-Love & Special Sauce, Dan Bern, Ani DiFranco, k.d. lang, Suzanne Vega, Shawn Colvin, Mike Doughty, The Indigo Girls and among many others. Ferrick is also an Assistant Professor in the Songwriting Department at Berklee College of Music.

Amanda Arrillaga '94

Director of Copyright Administration for RCA, a division of Sony Music Entertainment, Arrillaga graduated from Berklee with degree in music business/management. A few months later, she landed first job in the music industry at legendary Premier Talent Agency in New York, working with veterans Barbara Skydel and Frank Barsalona. Throughout her career, Arrillaga has held positions at Loud Records, Song/ATV Music Publishing, and So What Media and Management and developed a career as a painter.

Jay Sweet

Sweet is principal and co-founder of Sweet & Doggett, a music consulting firm whose clients have included Hasbro, World Wildlife Fund, Fisher Price, OurStage, Daytrotter, and Hear & There Inc. Known for understanding of the industry’s inner workings in relation to marketing, branding, production, touring, licensing, and content acquisition, Sweet has spent the last decade helping corporate America with its music initiatives. Over the last four years his biggest project has been rebranding and producing the legendary Newport Folk Festival. Sweet is also editor at large for the acclaimed national music and culture site Paste.com, where he has written about the Roots, the Flaming Lips, Radiohead, My Morning Jacket, and film director Wes Anderson.

This private event is open to the Berklee community and invited guests.